Is Blizzard still quality games maker?

I think that they still are, but atleast for me this comes with a twist (if not counting Starcraft II and it's expansion). Now when they annouce new product it's not anymore like in 2007 that you without second thought think that it's gonna be awesome and cant wait for it, now first thing that comes to mind is "It's propably gonna be somewhat good, but hope they dont f*ck it up".

Show me a game dev that's been in the business for several years, released several products, and hasn't stumbled once or twice.

D3 was Blizzard's stumble. Everything else they've released was fantastic. You might be able to count Cataclysm, but then that's what happens when Blizzard listens to all the community whines and tries to change the game to fit them. The quality of their games is still fantastic, it's just that some of their ideas about their target audience are a little off at the moment. They'll get it eventually.

I think they lost it. But that goes for so many companies that go for the: "casuals are a great way to make cash, we should make more games that reward doing nothing much and everyone gets to be a winner!"

The more they and other companies go for that, the more money they will probably make. But will it make good quality games like "us Amiga/commodore64/NES/SEGAsaturn"-generation love to play? I don't think so.

Just like with the Wii ---- they wanted to make games accessible to all types of people. "Bring the family in on gaming." Great... but can we also have those difficult games from when they were hard? Thank you!

First and foremost, other than doing some deep digging online, I really think this thread will be nothing but pure opinion.

Personally, I think Blizzard has already fallen from grace. I still can't really place when or why. But they just aren't the company I remember them being growing up. Granted, they aren't anywhere near as bad as, say, Electronic Arts, but I've just lost a lot of respect for them as a company. Again, this is just my personal opinion.

Originally Posted by Warwithin

Politicians put their hand on the BIBLE and swore to uphold the CONSTITUTION. They did not put their hand on the CONSTITUTION and swear to uphold the BIBLE.

Originally Posted by Adam Jensen

Except maybe Morgan Freeman. That man could convince God to be an atheist with that voice of his . . .

I think Blizzard have fallen into the Hollywood trap, they do not try to make a good game, the focus on not to do a to bad game, and let a shiny outer and the advertising torque to carry it. Blizzards later games/expatiation have been extremely conservative and did added lite new (exception of the real money pet store and real money AH)

D3, despite people loving to hate on it, was a success. ("OH GOD IT WAS SO BAD!!!!" Yet it still has over 1m people playing constantly? And will likely have a successful release on consoles due to the changes they've made since release...)
SC2 is a massive esport, and is only getting bigger. Sure it isn't as big as, say LoL, but LoL is free and easier to get into, plus it's a team game. It's still a huge esport and amazing game.
WoW is a nearly 10 year old game that STILL has, what, 7m players? Name one other game this old with that many, mmo or not.

"It's propably gonna be somewhat good, but hope they dont f*ck it up"

It's not only Blizzard, you see that quote from EVERYONE.
Look at a game that is hyped, you'll find a lot of people(Before it releases) be on the "It won't live up to the hype...they're going to fuck up."

I actually think D3 was such a blast to play in my first playthrough. It is bad design decisions from Blizzard that make it lost a lot of replayability. RMAH also hurts the game a lot. They even admited it. WoW is crowning achievment of Blizzard. It's a miracle that it could hold this much subs for such a long time. SC2 is an incredible game. The best RTS I have played since BW. It's the proof that hardcore game could have its place in this day and age.

Show me a game dev that's been in the business for several years, released several products, and hasn't stumbled once or twice.

D3 was Blizzard's stumble. Everything else they've released was fantastic. You might be able to count Cataclysm, but then that's what happens when Blizzard listens to all the community whines and tries to change the game to fit them. The quality of their games is still fantastic, it's just that some of their ideas about their target audience are a little off at the moment. They'll get it eventually.

D3 was far from a stumble in the eyes of the industry. Something like the 6th or 7th highest selling PC game of all time now. Sure it let down a vocal minority but no one can say it wasn't an extremely successful game.

I don't think Blizzards lost it. MoP has been some of the best quality WoW we've ever had.

Every game design studio on the planet wants to have a stumble the size of D3: 12,000,000 copies sold and likely several million more once the console version releases. Many people still playing it after more than a year. Yes, stumbles like that would make most game studios really happy.

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Every game design studio on the planet wants to have a stumble the size of D3: 12,000,000 copies sold and likely several million more once the console version releases. Many people still playing it after more than a year. Yes, stumbles like that would make most game studios really happy.

Yes, yes, but you cant always measure the quality just by looking at numbers. Just because something sells it doesnt mean it's as deep and immersive as for example D2.

I'd say Blizzard is still probably the top company when it comes to making quality games. WoW has been great for 10 years now, and is still trucking. Starcraft 2 is awesome, although I'm terrible at it and it depresses me when I try to play it. Personally I hated Diablo 3, but I got it for free with the annual pass so whatever, it wasn't even a bad game, it was just not a game I was at all interested in and I don't like the style of. Grinding for hours for some gear really isn't fun to me, and apparently a lot of people feel the same way, but the game overall was still decent. I had fun playing it with friends on normal difficulty, just wasn't interested in playing the same game over and over four more times and then pointlessly grinding.

But still, there hasn't been a game Blizzard put out that I would consider bad. Even mediocre really, all their games are solid and fun to play. More than I can say for any other company.

I think that they still are, but atleast for me this comes with a twist (if not counting Starcraft II and it's expansion). Now when they annouce new product it's not anymore like in 2007 that you without second thought think that it's gonna be awesome and cant wait for it, now first thing that comes to mind is "It's propably gonna be somewhat good, but hope they dont f*ck it up".

Not sure how you can discount Starcraft II as it's a third of their active game franchises. You could have the same conversation about BioWare and say 'not counting Mass Effect'.
Starcraft is a HUGE reason why Blizzard still 'has' it. It's one of the most popular e-sports out there, and its single player campaign is probably the best one I've played in RTS in a long, looong time.

Mists is also amazing, in my opinion, with the exception of 5.3, and while I haven't played D3, you cannot deny that it was a smash hit success, despite some of the problems it was revealed it had once it launched.

The fact that you even need to state this speaks volumes to the pathetic state of video game culture. Obviously if you're stating it.. it's your opinion. And if you're implying by the "personal" preface that you are the only one who has that as their opinion, then you are wrong. But you're not "simply" wrong. You're also rather moronic because *obviously* many other people feel this way as well. You feel the need to punctuate your statement with a reminder that it is your opinion because that will mitigate the fallout, which usually arrives in the form of angry kids slinging insults and threats over the internet. That is the state of video game culture. And internet culture. And the culture of anonymity.

That said, Blizzard has certainly fallen from grace.

They've become a very greedy, very profit-focused company. Is this a redundancy? I don't think so. But even if it is, there are other companies, like Valve, that are more committed to an ideal than they are to at least -immediate- profits.

Diablo 3. Had one real not-Blizzard's-usual-level-of-quality flaw. And that was its pathetic length.

Having to pay to transfer to a different server is corrupt. It is corrupt and evil and people should have (and maybe did and if so I am glad, but more than likely they didn't and therefore I am further ashamed) quit in droves over the insult. A lot of the time people want to transfer servers because, due to Blizzard's evil, greedy, shareholder-impressing-motivated refusal to merge servers, their server has died. In this case, they need to transfer because a failure on Blizzard's part has forced them to need to leave. And Blizzard wants to charge them for it.

Disgusting. How can anyone tolerate this?

We hear an exciting announcement that Blizzard is introducing a new IP. What is our waiting rewarded with?

Hearthstone. One of the biggest slaps in the face in video game history.

In-game auction house for D3? Disgusting. How can anyone support this?

Promises of Arena in Diablo 3. Years later. No arena in diablo 3. How can anyone support this? Disgusting.

Are you serious? Yes. It shouldn't even be a question. Every game Blizzard puts out is great.

Just to add some balance to the above the answer is a resounding No. Not every game they make is quality regardless of what the above guy says. Look I loved LOVED HoTS and it was the best thing I bought from them in recent memory. D3 and MoP are fucking terrible. So it's become much more of a mixed bag then it was before.

The hammer comes down:

Originally Posted by Osmeric

Normal should be reduced in difficulty. Heroic should be reduced in difficulty.
And the tiny fraction for whom heroic raids are currently well tuned? Too bad,so sad! With the arterial bleed of subs the fastest it's ever been, the vanity development that gives you guys your own content is no longer supportable.

LOL @ people claiming D3 to be successfull. There we go again: because it is popular it must be fun!!!

Someone said: there are 1 million people playing D3. So wait.. they sold 12 million copies... and only 1 million people still play it. Yeah perfect game!
Sure you could argue that everyone probably enjoyed it for a couple of days or even a few weeks. But almost everyone I played WoW with bought D3. Almost everyone dropped the game after getting to max level. It was not worth repeating AGAIN (the game). D2 had a huge replayability even D1 had this imo. D3 was a huge failure on that part. D3 sold so many copies due to its name and predecessors.

So yes marketingwise and seeing how many actually sold it was a huge success. But I think we have about 11 million desillusioned people.

Tho what has going for it. Apparantly normal games do not have a lifespan of more then a few weeks. So if everyone goes by that score then yes D3 was a huge success. I don't agree with this because of its predecessors.

...in your opinion. I think that game is WAY better than D2. The flexibility in how you can effectively respec your char in a few seconds, the way you perform your abilities (I hated D2 click-fest), the way battle-net is integrated - it's just way better than D2.

If only it had had a longer story...

Blizzard delivers incredible games - and sits securely on the multiplayer throne today. It really is that simple.